Kratos vs Dirk The Ultimate Competition
by Eyes of the infinite galaxy
Summary: Two fathers... one son... let's even things out...
1. Hatred Arises

Kratos vs. Dirk

Chapter 1

**Me: By just reading the title you should know what this is about… a minor problem between Dirk and Kratos but it's solved and everyone goes home happy, right? WRONG. Not a little problem, one of the most fierce, heart-breaking competitions known to man: the better father. Dramatic, action-packed and full of stirring dialogue. The passage you've all been waiting for… Ladies and Gentlemen, THE ULTIMATE COMPETITION!!!!!**

**Damien: Yah, you can expect this from her… she makes something big out of everything, just read and review please.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own tales of Symphonia or any one in it. Nothing absolutely nothing! Not one shred of hair left dangling on the disc!**

**Damien: Exaggerating again…**

**Me: Would you stop that?! I'm creating a hook.**

**Damien: A hook? The readers aren't fish…**

**Me: Just shut up.**

**Damien: ...**

**A/N: This story happens after the game, when they are reviving any healable exspheres.**

"You, of all people, are deciding to do this? And I thought you were the smart one..." Lloyd mumbled following Genis into the dark, humid forest.

"It's fine Lloyd, monsters are normally here at night, we've got a few more hours 'till sunset," Genis stated confidently allowing his light feet to fall and rise without caution.

"Uh... Genis? If it's dark in here all the time, why does it matter?" the young swordsman questioned uneasily, his feet, even though heavy, silently landing repetitively over the pine-layered earth.

"Come on Lloyd, this is the only canyon-forest humid enough for silver satay, if we don't go now, we'll never get it…"

"Sigh..."

"Ever since you took your exsphere off, you've been acting strangely...no... You aren't scared, are you?" Genis asked in disbelief, his once free, lengthy strides pausing momentarily before continuing.

"No way! Genis, I'm not afraid of any...thing..." Lloyd stated confidently at first, but gradually getting softer until he could barely be heard, "Anything but rejection..."

"A ten minute walk, we'll be back in less than half an hour. There's no room to complain," Genis persisted quickening his pace.

"Whoa! Guys wait up!" Zelos hollered jogging up the path and towards Lloyd and Genis, "Where are the girls? You can't leave me alone with out a hunny! I'll get bored!"

"Dang, I purposely went _around_ his tent to avoid the perv, yet he still finds us... am I cursed with some unexplainable bad luck complexity or something?" Genis exclaimed quietly as to not let Zelos hear.

"Are they hiding from you again? All of them? I thought professor Raine was a bit old for that…" Lloyd replied as Zelos caught up to them and they continued walking.

"None of my hunnies are too old for me! Even my Super Glamorous Gorgeous!" Zelos responded.

"WHAT!?! You nick-named my sister? I didn't think you would dare!" Genis exclaimed completely capable of murder.

"Cool it Brat, you're not that much of a threat anyway… so where are we headed anyway?" Zelos questioned, oblivious to the raging half-elf next to him.

"W-" Genis tried to say before getting interrupted.

"Not you Brat, Lloyd," Zelos said obnoxiously.

"Silver Satay, Genis said it's a ten minute walk from here," Lloyd responded.

"Right… Silver Satay… you're girlfriend or something?" Zelos asked.

"No, Mr. Brilliance, it's a plant, necessary for miracle gel and unicorn blade, also a convenient cooking ingredient," Genis stated sarcastically.

"That's _Sir _Mr. Brilliance to you Brat," Zelos admonished.

"Grrrrrr… I'd burn you to a crisp if Raine hadn't made me sign that stupid treaty after that… ahum… incident" Genis muttered.

"Oh yah… that reminds me… youowemetenbucks,"

"What?!" Genis more roared than questioned.

The group made their way deeper into the forest-canyon to a dried out brook and leapt into the unknown abyss to find the Silver Satay growing abundantly in the damp, dark areas of the waterless creek. They spent a good five minutes searching and gathering the Satay and took a break as soon as they exited the rocky riverbed.

"So Lloyd," Zelos paused for a moment not knowing what to say and then continued with an idea of what to talk about, "That's a funny name Lloyd…"

"What? You're saying 'Zelos' is a normal name?" Genis questioned.

"Well, it sounds strange when you put it with things, like his last name, Iiiirvviennng, Lloyd Iiiirvviennng," Zelos stated. They all took a moment to look at him as though he were crazy but soon realized that they had known that long before and continued talking…

"As insane Zelos is, he does bring up a version of a good point. Forgive me for asking but as we all know today at this moment in time in this dark and humid forest of silver satay after our many journeys and quests in Symphonia and twisting plots with extreme detail and music that-" Genis tried to say before getting interrupted.

"Would you just get it over with?!" Zelos questioned growing annoyed, "And quit it with all the prepositional phases."

"All right, I have to ask, curiosity is, after all, my nature…shouldn't Lloyd's last name be Aurion now, because, you know, Kratos is his dad?" Genis asked finally getting to the point.

_Bingo. Exactly what I wanted to talk about. Good job Brat, _Zelos muttered silently. "Finally! God, how long can you blabber on like that?" Zelos questioned with relief, "And Lloyd last name is Aurion now, no question about it."

Lloyd winced at the thought.

"Come on Lloyd, he's your dad! You're supposed to care about him," Zelos lectured.

"I'll only return what he gives to me," Lloyd snapped coldly, "And right now he isn't giving me anything besides cold-hearted rejection!"

"Lloyd! That isn't true! He loves you more than anything in Sylvarant and Tethe'alla combined!" Genis exclaimed, completely shocked. Lloyd turned around faced him with cold, angry eyes.

"That isn't your place to say! I can see for myself, he couldn't care a damn! I know what fatherly love is unlike you and he cares nothing compared to Dad!" Lloyd roared blindly not considering the power of his words.

"I may not have a father," Genis whimpered sadly, "But I can tell he cares about you, Lloyd, just like my unknown father cares for me, appreciate that you have one."

"I'm sorry Genis… you don't disserve my hatred, not you… I'm sorry…"

"No, Lloyd no one does, including Kratos…"

"Ooooo…kay!" Zelos stated after the uncomfortable silence, "Let's get going, I want to meet Lloyd's girlfriend!"

"Silver Satay is a cooking stuff, not my girlfriend!" Lloyd stated raising his voice.

"Oh yah, right, that's Colette, so Silver is Genis' girlfriend! Now I'm starting to get it!" Zelos realized.

"Awha-" Genis gasped.

"Colette is not my girlfriend either!" Lloyd growled.

"Oh really?" Genis questioned.

"Yes, really Genis," Lloyd stated.

"Then explain why I have this on tape," Genis said mischievously as he pulled out a small piece of magi-technology and pressed the green touch screen making it play a romantic scene between Lloyd and Colette . Lloyd found himself blushing.

"I-It wasn't romantic- i-it was a friendly conversation!" Lloyd blurted out.

"Uh-hu, sure…" Zelos stated with a sly grin on his face.

"It was, I swear!" Lloyd defended.

"Was not!" Zelos taunted.

"Was to-"

"Lloyd and Colette kissing in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Genis sang.

"Genis! You're toast! No, you're not just toast, you're burnt toast!" Lloyd growled chasing after the young half-elf as Zelos laughed manically in the background. Suddenly Genis stopped dead and Lloyd pounced on him.

"L-loyd, I heard something…" the mage squeaked from under Lloyd.

"I hear it too… AH!" Zelos shrieked scaring the life out of Lloyd and Genis, "Weird… you fell for it, and I'm not even good at acting…" Zelos laughed.

"It isn't funny, I swear I heard… AHHHHHH!" Genis screamed rolling out from under Lloyd and colliding with the soft but painful ground.

"Look Brat, the joke's over,-" Zelos stated before getting interrupted by Genis.

"SOMETHING'S GOT ME! SOMETHING'S GOT ME!!!!" Genis choked as though something were strangling him.

"Okay, okay… I know you're jealous but it's _my _joke…" Zelos stated.

"AHHHHH!" Genis screeched.

"It's gonna become clichéd if you keep sayin- I mean, yelling it,"

"AHHHH!"

"You can stop screaming now we get it… " Zelos repeated.

"Gitoffme gitoffme GET OFF ME!"

"Did you not hear me?"

"All right ghost, I'll show you what happens when you mess with Genis, the Genis… AQUA LAZER!!!!" Genis roared aiming a powerful gust at… well… nothing as Lloyd and Zelos stood five feet away absolutely clueless and assuming the half-elf was hallucinating.

"What is he doing?" Lloyd questioned.

"No clue…" Zelos responded as Genis finally haled the imaginary disturbance over his shoulder and slammed it into the forest floor, which unfortunately wasn't very hard.

"Did Genis have these issues as a child?" Zelos asked still watching the battle passively.

"No, and if you're going to ask me if he went to mime school, no," Lloyd responded.

Suddenly the earth moved under the area Genis had smashed his hallucination upon creating a small amount of dust and vibrations. This, of course, caught everyone's attention because dirt doesn't move by itself.

"Got ya!" Genis exclaimed, spaying a water attack over the mass that had caused the dirt's action. Instead of hitting its target, the ground, the water formed around a shape and clung to it creating a clear image of what Genis had been fighting: a giant servile-type phantom complete with large fangs and claws.

"Oh…" Lloyd and Zelos muttered in unison finally discovering that they were actually in a battle, and a tough one. The servile phantom rose to its feet and shook its invisible coat so that the water that had collected on him from Genis' attack flew off its fur, making it once again invisible.

"Oh, SNAP!" Zelos well, snapped. And right on queue Raine and Kratos came running in for the save.

"A camolisist, a creature that has gained the ability to turn invisible, rely entirely on sound and vibrations," Kratos instructed calmly. As though the monster had heard what they had said, it quieted and everything shifted into a tense silence. Kratos began scanning the area with shifty eyes as Raine helped Genis up. Suddenly a rustle of leaves and grass came from the left of their current direction. Kratos immediately spun around to find himself directly in front of the invisible force. Lloyd and Zelos came up from behind him cautiously ready to attack.

"It's far from done. It will attack soon, be ready," Raine warned also looking around.

"There!" Lloyd exclaimed pointing to a small gust of dirt and charging at it.

"Lloyd! Wait!" Kratos warned fruitlessly. After two seconds of the battle had passed, Lloyd was on the ground, panting. Suddenly a minor but large gash appeared across the young swordsman's right shoulder and forearm.

"Ugh! Damn ghost" Lloyd muttered elevating to a knee. With this, Kratos and Zelos charged at the beast and struggled to destroy it with the help of angelic attacks. Unfortunately, the creature had some tricks of its own, including teleportation. So, as you can imagine, the fight became plenty harder.

"It can teleport? This just keep getting better," Zelos growled sardonically.

By this time Lloyd had made it up and was fighting again… with the left arm.

"Dang, this is harder than writing with my right!" He exclaimed.

"You normally write with you right don't you?" Genis questioned while gathering his mana for a spell.

"Yes... okay fine, I'm terrible at writing, you happy?" Lloyd stated struggling to find the enemy. Suddenly an unexpected, invisible claw came charging at Lloyd but was blocked by his sword. But as you know, I don't do happy endings… well at least entirely happy results and so another claw came thrusting down his unprotected left side, digging deep into his prior wound and chest.

"Ahahgh-"Lloyd mumbled, retreating to a crouching stance. And just to make matters worse, yet another invisible, dagger-like claw began to attack its victim. But this was blocked by another sword, the wielder: Kratos. But in doing so, Kratos had left himself vulnerable and received a stinging pain in the chest from the phantom. With two incredibly powerful and angry thrusts, Kratos had the beast on the verge of death and left Zelos to finish it off.

"Take that, you incredibly unsexy fiend!" Zelos insulted. Everyone ignored this and turned to Lloyd.

"Lloyd you really should be more careful," Raine lectured as she healed the wound, "It's okay to work and depend on each other."

"That was strange… I've never seen something like it…" Genis muttered.

"Well duh, the thing's invisible," Zelos stated.

"That wasn't what I meant," Genis explained.

"Thanks professor," Lloyd…thanked gathering some of the satay that fallen on the floor during the battle.

"Wait, back up a sec, how'd you find us my glamorous hunny?" Zelos questioned Raine, of course, a girl.

"I doubt you'll pay any attention to me when I say I don't respond to that name," Raine repeated.

"Good point, how'd you find us professor?" Lloyd asked.

"Actually, Kratos was the one to sense the danger, how? I don't know," Raine confessed. Everyone except for Lloyd turned to Kratos.

"Angelic hearing, I was mapping out where you went though the sounds you created getting here," Kratos answered.

"You were eavesdropping on us?" Lloyd questioned in an annoyed tone.

"Sigh... Not to your words, but rather your footsteps," Kratos explained somewhat irritably.

"But you were still listening to our words without permission?" Lloyd questioned gradually getting louder.

"How ironic… Kratos asking for permission from Lloyd? Not gonna happen…" Zelos muttered.

"Would you have rather me not? You would be at the least, be injured by now if I hadn't," Kratos stated getting even more irate but not showing it. _Can't you see you scared me to death? _Kratos pondered.

"You heard-"(what we said about you?) Genis tried to say before getting cut off by Lloyd.

"Well, what goes around comes around, that's all I'm gonna say," Zelos admonished.

"What was that about?" Genis questioned the random thought.

"…"

"Have I not been informed of something?" Raine asked.

"No, you are not missing anything…" Kratos stated a bit more quickly than normal, trying to get off the topic, "Let's head back."

**Me: That's it for now; it'll get more dramatic later on…**

**Damien: Do you even know what dramatic means?**

**Me: Uh…yes? No? Maybe?**

**Damien: I don't like where this is going. It doesn't really seem like a competition at all, you made it clear that Lloyd hates Kratos… and so now Kratos doesn't even have a chance…**

**Me: Oh it's a competition alright, a tense one.**

**Damien: You call a clear loss a tense competition?**

**Me: I'm workin' on it I'm workin' on it…**

**Damien: I'd hope so. Review please.**

**Me: You have to say something funny to make them review like "tacos" or something-**

**Damien: You call that FuNNy? A taco? You- wait a minute… I told you to work on chapter two!**

**Me: Uh… right… yah… I'll get to work on that heh… (Whispers) What did I tell you about turning the readers against me?**

**Damien: Hah, I like I listen to anything you say… NOW GET TO WORK SLAVE!!! MHAHAHAHA- oops… nothing happened okay?**

**Me: I told you! She's evil! She's plotting world domination and she has me captive! I not making it up, it's tru-**

**Damien: Shut up and get to work!**

**Me: On it…**


	2. A Rejected Heart

**Me: Okay… sorry this took so long… but hey, it's Thursday right before winter break… I have all my mid-terms tomorrow.**

**Damien: Then shouldn't you be studying for them?**

**Me: Shhh! Don't tell them that!**

**Damien: Sigh…**

**Disclaimer: Sigh... do I have to say it? You guys couldn't care less if I put it up anyway...**

**Damien: Just do it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own TOS k, happy?**

**Damien: Stop dragging your feet and get on with the show dammit!**

Kratos vs. Dirk

The Ultimate Competition

A Rejected Heart

**('Cause Kratos' locket is a heart- no…wait Kratos' locket is a circle…Oh well, it has another meaning too, so we're cool.)**

**(Oh yah, the chapter "The incomprehensible" Comes later… sorry about that…)**

As the clouds collected high above their heads, Genis, Colette, and Lloyd gathered in the largest of the tents for the night. Persea, Raine, and Sheena had a smaller one, Regal and Zelos had the same as the three girls, and Kratos… well… they couldn't find him… but the seraph always had that tendency to disappear, tonight was no different. Not that the arrangements would be permanent, but they would last for now and a conversation.

"So… what did you do today Lloyd?" Colette questioned innocently finding a soft spot over the lumpy tarp, creating a comfortable seat out of it, and opening her journal to a new page.**(Hey... I should do a chapter when Genis and Lloyd find Colette's jornal... ****Brilliant **!!!)

"Sigh…" Lloyd muttered recalling his oh-so-successful-day.

"He's just bummed out 'cause Kratos saved his skin twice during our little trip to see his girlfriend," Zelos explained pulling the entrance flap of the tent outwards to get in and closing it off with the worn, side zippers.

"You have a girlfriend?!" Colette asked in a hollow but amazed tone and looking up from her excessively-neat writing.

"No way! He just- I-I..." Lloyd stuttered uneasily.

"Sigh... No, it's just Zelos has it down that silver satay is Lloyd's girlfriend," Genis laughed.

"Oh… I see…" the blond muttered scribbling over a word she had written.

"Man… if **Kratos** had not stepped in… I could have been killed… we all could have…"Genis mumbled reminiscing over the past battle and staring at the floor in a thoughtful but concerned manner.

"What exactly happened?" Colette asked with both minor astonishment and curiously, continuing her work. Lloyd could feel anger welling up in him, flames of burning hatred steaming with ire. Only the word "Kratos" would send him into indignation, this was even worse.

"Long story short… we got into a tough battle, and **Kratos** hel-"Zelos struggled to say before Lloyd interrupted.

"Enough with **Kratos**! " Lloyd blurted out angrily, allowing the flames to erupt from him momentarily, as everyone silenced, looking at him with cautious eyes. Genis found himself reflecting the anger with a glare rather than trying to calm Lloyd's inner fire.

"…It…gets irritating after a while…" the eternal swordsman added slowly, feeling the shame of the frightened glowers directed upon him.

"What's going on between you and Kratos? You're always getting angry whenever we do so much as mentioning his name…" Zelos pondered finally sensing the tension between the son and father.

"Now that you mention it… you have indeed been acting strangely…" Colette mused, "Is there anything wrong Lloyd?"

"N-no…" Lloyd mumbled sheepishly, hiding his face under his brow's umbra. That was all Genis could manage, _Lloyd has Kratos, such a valued treasure that almost none of us have... and some how, he manages to hate what I would consider a wealth of gold, a trove of silver... a father._

"Lloyd thinks Kratos hates him," Genis stated suddenly in an angered tone.

Gasp!

"No way…" Zelos whispered, finding a seat on the tarp, of course, next to Colette.

"You're getting this _now_?" Genis questioned, knowing that Zelos had heard the previous argument on the topic.

"No, I'm sure Lloyd knows Kratos cares about him, after all he is his dad-"Colette tried to say before, also getting interrupted.

"Excuse me," Lloyd growled in an irate tone, grabbing his blades and storming out of the tent.

"See what we're dealing with?" Genis questioned.

"Lloyd, wait!" Colette called desperately. Lloyd paused for a minute as he exited the tent but then continued leaving the door open. The blond dropped her spiral and headed out also leaving the exit flap unzipped.

"Lloyd? Lloyd? Lloyd!" She exclaimed, discovering him about ten paces down the path that led to the forest and sprinting after him.

"Colette?" Lloyd questioned looking back. She was already by his side and grabbed his hands to slow her pace. They stood face to face, hand in hand, staring at each other. Lloyd seemed to calm, looking into her blue, aqua eyes... the process of cooling flame. Because of her uncomfortable situation, the blond blushed slightly and took something out of her pocket. She opened his hand and placed the object into his palm, not yet releasing it.

"You left this…" She murmured as she took her hand back and revealed an object, the object, the most hated item Lloyd could possibly see through his pacifying eyes. A locket, Kratos' locket.

"I don't want it," Lloyd snapped, pushing it back into her hands.

"uh-Lloyd, please!" Colette begged, wrapping her fingers tightly around its surface as his hands left hers.

"Leave me alone," Lloyd muttered, walking around her and further away on the trail, soon disappearing into the maze of the forest.

"Please Lloyd! It was your mother's too!" Colette yelled over the wind. Lloyd paused at this but then continued into the rustling forest of damp brush and trees. He was furious, enough to reject Colette.

"Lloyd… what has happened?..." Colette whispered searching the tangling leaves and branches for Lloyd and failing. "Kratos…what have you done?"

"_Kil-kill, killed, killed," _The wind whistled in a ghostly essence, _"Kil-kill killed, killed, killed…"_

**Damien: I did not get that…**

**Me: BAD! BAD DAMIEN! You cut the story short! BAD! BAD! BAD!**

**Damien: What do you think I am? A dog? And I still didn't get that "Kill-killed" part, what did you mean?**

**Me: Sigh... guess I gotta explain...**

**Damien: Really? You are really going to tell me?**

**Me: No.**

**Damien: I should not have fallen for that…**

**Me: But I will help you out, okay in the chapter after the next chapter, I will underline a word, then you will understand it.**

**Damien: That's still hard to catch…**

**Me: Welp, some jokes are only for the smart people…**

**Damien: You're saying I'm not smart?**

**Me: Precisely.**

**Damien: I'll kill you as soon as the readers leave…**

**Me: Precis- wait kill me? NOOOOO! I'm too young to die! (Breaks out sobbing)**

**Damien: Man, I'm good at that…**

**Next chapter: Cooling Flame **

**HEY! HEY! ATTENTION HERE PLEASE!!!!!**

**Okay, I need some ideas on how to turn Kratos against Dirk and Kyogre, if there is any time I'll be needing you it's now so please help and rev. Also, on a side note- I got that from you Kyogre- I'm going to be making another fic called Mistletoe, it's REALLY good, so if you see it, READ it.**

**AND REV. PLEASE!!!! Damien's teasing on how little rev.s I have so please I'm begging you reader, if you rev. I'll rev. yours, ALL OF THEM!, I promise! Ask Kyogre!!!**


	3. Cooling Flame

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**Me: Chap. #3! Weeee!**

**Damien: Okay, it don't try to rhyme things, it's just scary.**

**Me: Come on, I'm trying my best to get rev.s**

**Damien: Well, I doubt that's gonna help, now on with the story.**

**Me/Disclaimer: Gee, Damien you're so mean…sniffle, sniffle…**

**Damien: God dammit, just say the disclaimer, Disclaimer!**

**Me/Disclaimer: Now that just sounded weird…**

**Damien: Eyes of the infinite galaxy doesn't own Tales of Symphonia. Tell me people, is that so hard to say?**

**Me/Disclaimer: Well Eyes of the Infinite Galaxy is a bit of a mouth full…**

**Damien: Oh, and who was the brilliant genius who decided to use that penname?**

**Me/Disclaimer: …

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Kratos vs. Dirk

The Ultimate Competition

Cooling Flame

(A/N: Aren't these line thingies cool? I just learned how to use 'em.)

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A small sigh of anger and exasperation escaped Lloyd's mouth, leaving his long, damp bangs to quiver from the light movement. He had indeed been too hard on Colette hadn't he? Oh, yet another problem added to the mess of conflicting emotions and occurrences stored in his mind.

He continued walking through the Isealian Forest, not knowing and further more, not caring where he was going. He was far to absorbed in his emotions and thoughts for that. He simultaneously was facing the fear and anger of rejection from his father, and was terribly hurt because of this, he felt guilty as well for the way he had reacted towards Genis and Colette, and all in all he was confused, imprisoned in a dungeon of negative contradicting emotions and thoughts. Angry, confused, guilty, scared, hurt... all at the same time.

Lloyd, an obviously slow, shallow thinker, had never experienced a state of such deep thought and pondering… this led to a lack of consciousness which led to him randomly crashing into a large stump **(A/N: Ever heard of the expession "Crashing into your own solution"? No? Well neither have I.)** nearly, if not, as tall as him. **(A/N: Now he's thinking too much, sigh... Kratos is starting to rub off on him isn't he?)**

The eternal swordsman found himself falling backwards from the impact and barely recovered from his deep state in time to break his fall with one of his gloved hands.

"What in Symphonia-"He pondered as he looked up to see the strikingly-familiar stump that had caused his fall. Lloyd gazed at it with curious, child-like eyes and recognized it.

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-Flashback-

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"_Daddy!" A child with light red hair and chocolate brown, tearing eyes screamed as he began to fall of a steep, twenty-foot decline along with another woman and some sort of wolfish, green and white protozoan. The woman appeared to be the boy's mother, a strange bloody gem beside her, and was drenched in a thick coat of crimson blood, barely conscious and terribly wounded. The protozoan was also hurt but conscious and whining._

_A man, obviously the father, could barely be seen over the edge of the cliff as a hazy, nimble blur slashing frantically through desian after desian, trying to make his way to the precipice._

_The scene was blurry, as though Lloyd had been crying, and tinted in a shade of red proving that there was blood._

_The thin piece of earth the group had been balancing on finally gave way, collapsing under the weight of the terrified three figures. As the earth crumbled away, the child scrambled up the falling surface only to find himself falling along with his mother._

"_DAD!" The small boy cried again, sobbing even harder, as he did, the scene getting harder and harder to see. Crystal tears began clouding the view, as though Lloyd was viewing the event through the boy's eyes. _

_They fell. Hitting the hard lower ground with an unsurvivable force, but the crying continued._

_The boy was sent fling away from the cliff due to the force, gaining multiple slight wounds and cuts. Finally, the child halted next to a strikingly-familiar stump, his muffled cries softening as the image went dark.

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-End Flashback-

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Lloyd awoke, finding his body in the same position the boy had been in next to the stump before the scene had gone black. He jumped up immediately and sprinted in the direction the decline had been in the vision, only to find the exact precipice that the child had fallen off of. 

"That kid… who was he?" Lloyd mumbled mentally. _Surely I couldn't have been the kid… I have brown hair; the child had had light red._ _But that gem- _Lloyd pondered, _that was mom's exsphere… that kid had to be me!_

Lloyd walked back to the stump, placing his hand lightly over it, digging his fingers into the chipping, dry bark.

"This was where Dirk found me… red hair and all…" Lloyd whispered under his breath, his anger beginning to fade, his flames beginning to cool.

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**Me: Ha ha, Lloyd had red hair when he was little, how cool it that?**

**Damien: Wait… it says here that this story is under comedy…**

**Me: And…**

**Damien: YOU PUT THIS UNDER COMIDY?!??!!!! O.o**

**Me: What?! What'd I do?! **

**Damien: No wonder you aren't getting reviews!**

**Me: What are you implying?(Hey, I used a big word...yay! Go ME!)**

**Damien: God dammit! You suck in comedy!!!! **

**Me: Wait… are you saying I'm good at other things? YAYYY! That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me! (Tries to hug Damien)**

**Damien: (dodges overly-happy me) As you can see, she's desperate… please send in reviews before she hugs me to death…**

**Me: I love you Damien!**

**Damien: okay I'm not just asking you, I'm begging you PLEASE REVIEW!!!! **

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**Next Chapter: The Past Reoccurs (It might change, you can never trust me...)**


	4. Signs of the Past

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Me: Sorry it took so long, but it's not like anybody's reading this anyway… **

**Damien: Don't say that you idiot! You're going to make the people who are reviewing feel worthless!**

**Me: Whoops… **

**Damien: So… helpless… anyway, scratching that, would someone like to do the disclaimer?**

**Me: Hm?**

**Damien: I talking to you, idiot!**

**Me: Right, I don't own anything.**

**Damien: …**

**Me: What?**

**Damien: That was easier than what I expected…

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**Signs of the Past** (A/N: Haha! Changed it again!)

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Kratos left the camp as soon as everyone had settled into their tents. He traveled over the dark path to the Isaelian forest they were camping next to at a rather fast pace but a normal one for his standards. 

If there was anything that came close to claming the seraph it was the night sky (which he need desperately with the amount thoughts racing through his mind), but one, unfortunately, could not see it from where their camp was located, mainly because of the thick canopy that shielded them from the both, the beauty of the dark heavens and the nightly winter weather. So he planned to find higher ground before trying to view the sky.

Unfortunately this would take him a while because his attention wasn't directed on this but more of what had happened that day.

_I could understand being angry… and hating me…but I didn't want him to be… in pain… I don't see how he is hurt, I would expect him to only be angry with me, _he pondered, referring to the discussion he ad heard between Lloyd and Genis as they were searching for satay in the western regions of the canyon-forest. And, as you know, I don't make things easy on people **A/N: Goes with the hole non-happy results thing (Don't worry. Results meaning a sometimes unhappy/happy plots but always happy endings)- that didn't make sence did it?**, so Kratos had only heard part of the conversation, and not the section where Lloyd had stated _why_ he despised the angel. **(A/N: MUHAHAHA! I'm so evil…)**

_But the way he looked at me… he was angry of course but… hurt as well… this sadness… was it disappointment possibly? Disappointment in who I was? Or was it because of what I have done? How I couldn't-… _the swordsman silenced his thoughts… to even think of Anna made him face a guilt worse than baring the blood of the world on your sword… the blood of the one you love on your sword.

"If I haven't been able to forgive myself for fourteen years, I'd best not waste the night trying to heal that scar, I shall concentrate on the problem here," the swordsman tried to tell himself, only to have half his mind cooperating with him, the other flashing back to his crime continuously, making it increasingly hard to concentrate.

Finally, the seraph stumbled (not literally) across a familiar, ascending ground, bordered by a familiar cliff on its far side and a familiar slope that he stood on. Okay, a very familiar precipice… Anna's death ground **(A/N: Where she died, not where she was buried people, GET IT STRAIT!).**

-Queue extremely dramatic music.

"_Yes of course, I ask for higher ground to ease my troubles and what do I find? The very piece of elevated earth that started all my troubles in the first place… how pleasant," he muttered to himself._

Abruptly stop dramatic music because SOMeoNe had to ruin the beautifully dramatic scene with a humor remark, KrATos…

Finding the next clearing to be about a good league away, the angel decided the hill, even though not his favorite, would serve as tolerable harborage for him to think in peace.

He leaned back into a small but adult oak and looked towards the sky to receive its strange, calming effect.

He had always enjoyed this, gazing into the infinite illusion of the night differentiating the stars, from the planets, from the nebulae… deciphering the complexities of the constellations… awing at the incomprehensible inexhaustibility. It made everything seem so simple in comparison to its unintelligible mass, eternity seemed to last a minute, the world appeared as particle of dust, and the miscues of himself and humanity could be seen as a small, marginal smudge over the black, star-dotted masterpiece.

A soft, distant noise broke his trance, forcing his mind back to reality.

_"huhswt… huhswt… huhswt… "_the noise repeated once more, _"huhswt… huhswt… huhswt…"_

The seraph considered ignoring it and returning to his deep ponder, but the sound had interested his curious mind, especially due to metallic aura the sound was composed of.

"_Nothing_ _natural I would presume_," he muttered and followed the unknown and continuous drone.

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**Me: And cut! Man, these chapters just keep getting shorter and shorter…**

**Damien: This is taking soooo long, how many chapters are you planning on having?**

**Me: Sigh... Damien, Damien, Damien… you should know by now I have absolutely no idea.**

**Damien**: **I don't like that tone in you voice, it sounds like this is going to go on forever…**

**Me: You know what? It just might…**

**Damien: We have to speed this up! Look how long it's taking!**

**Me: (Stares at Damien miraculously and grins maniacally)**

**Damien: What's with the look?**

**Me: …I've got an idea…**

**Damien: Uh-oh…

* * *

Next Chapter: I have absoulutly no idea... it might be ****"The Incomprehensible"**, it might be **"The Past Reoccurs",** or something totally unexpected... I have no clue...

* * *


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